 06-11-2007, 3:02 PM
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Emmanuel_OEI
Joined on 06-08-2007
Posts 4
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Introduction by Emmanuel Prinet, One Earth Initiative
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Hello/bonjour!
My name is Emmanuel Prinet, and I am co-Director of the advocacy group One Earth Initiative (www.oneearthweb.org), based in Vancouver, Canada.
One Earth, whose goal is to promote sustainable consumption and production (SCP) patterns at the local, national and international level, has been asked by UNEP/UN DESA to co-facilitate the NGO forum for the Third International Meeting of Experts on SCP, Stockholm, June 2007.
What I'd like to get out of this meeting is a clear idea of where the Marrakech Process is headed (ie. that expectations are clear, and that there are specific timelines and objectives that have been set for the process), and to ensure that we, the global community, are well on track of having a solid and well-defined idea of what the "framework of programmes" could look like by the end of the conference.
I have a few major concerns at this point regarding the Marrakech Process:
a) This is not currently an intergovernmental meeting and process (although government experts are involved), meaning that whatever "we" as experts produce--such as a model framework of programmes--might end up simply being dismissed or seriously dismantled by the time governments examine it at, say, the 2010 and 2011 UN CSD cycle. Is this a fatality, or can we address it adequately?
b) The fact that a "framework of programmes on SCP in support of national and regional initiatives" will be available in a few years (well, hopefully!) should not be an excuse for governments not to act today and develop a national SCP strategy, as they had promised already in Agenda 21 fifteen years ago. I think we need to send a clear signal on this point.
c) The world is in a crisis situation, with major biological diversity destruction, the loss of species and the collapse of ecosystems worldwide (read Jared Diamond's "Collapse" and the Millennium Ecosystems Assessment if you are not convinced about this point), undermining the very foundation on which the human economic system rests and depends, with the very likely dire consequence of making it impossible for humanity to eradicate poverty and, in the longer term, meet basic needs for a large majority of the world's population. The Marrakech Process must match the scale of the problem with appropriate solutions. Calls, for example, to "delink environmental pressures from economic growth" is grossly inadequate to move towards SCP and, in my mind, simply allow the system to keep moving in the same, highly unsustainable direction.
I am planning on attending the following working groups:
1) Group 2 -- "Sustainable products"; and
2) Group 2 -- "National programmes on SCP: guidelines and indicators"
I'm looking forward to hearing your ideas/views on the draft NGO position paper, and meeting you in Stockholm!
Emmanuel.
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